Amelia Mary Earhart was Born July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas to her parents Amy Otis Earhart and Edwin Stanton Earhart. When she was twelve she became an older sister to her sister Muriel. In her childhood, she and her sister spent a lot of time taking care of her maternal grandparents. It was there in her childhood town that she found her sense of adventure and made a goal to show that women are just as valuable as men in this society. She and her sister were always very close and they decided they were going to break the social norms that girls always have to be ladylike
They then decided to play all the sports the boys played and did activities that were reserved for boys. This got the Earharts known to be “tomboys.” When Amelia was only ten she went to a state fair and first saw an airplane. She said it was quote, “a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting.” Her option would then take a huge turn. She and her family moved from Kansas to Iowa to Minnesota to Illinois, where Amelia then graduated from high school.
Amelia had always loved science and sports but her parents had a rocky relationship, and her dad was most of the time absent in her life. This made Amelia have a sense of independence and hate when people wanted to “take care of her.” One day Amelia decides to take a trip to see her little sister during World War I when she is first exposed to the sad sight of wounded soldiers who are where most people are. After seeing that she became a nurse for the Red Cross and began medical studies at Columbia University, but unfortunately had to head to California to be with her parents.
It was there when Amelia found her lifelong destiny to fly. In 1920 she went on her first plane ride and said, “By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly.” She then took flying lessons and brought her first plane which was a bright yellow, two-seater Kinner Airster she christened, “The Canary,” with the help of her sister and mom. In that plane she set her first woman flying record by going 14,000 feet in the air.
Soon after her parents divorce she had to sell her plane and move with her mom. She then spent her time writing articles about flying and plans in the local newspaper and became a local celebrity. From that newspaper, she caught the attention of a group who were trying to find a woman who could fly across the Atlantic. That included her future husband George P. Putnam. In 1928, Amelia was selected to be the first woman on a transatlantic flight but was just a passenger. She then was determined to be the first woman to fly one. Before she decided to try flying across the Atlantic three other women had already died trying to. Even though there were deadly risks, she then devoted her whole life to this dream.
She then helped establish and was the first president of a group called the Ninety-Nines. The group then helped her get the money to buy a plane that she would plan to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe around the equator. She then set out to fulfill her destiny on June 1, 1937, with her navigator Fred Noonan. After over 22,000 miles and two-thirds way through their journey, Amelia lost all radio connections and mysteriously crashed creating thousands of theories and one of the most famous mysteries ever. After the most expensive air and sea search in American history trying to find the plane they then declared Amelia Earheart and Fred Noonan dead on January 5, 1939.
In the U.S. government report, they concluded that the plane lost fuel and crashed into the ocean, but still, to this day no one knows what happened after the crash. Given how mysterious the crash and death were, lots of theories have been made over the 89 years. One of the more straightforward theories is that when the plane crashed Earheart and Noonan were instantly killed on impact or were not able to get out of the plane and ended up drowning. They then believe that it is somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
Another one of the theories is when they lost the radio connection they made a stop on the island Nikumaroro which is near where she was when she lost the connection. According to TIGHAR (the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery), Amelia used the radio to make multiple distress signals. The week after the plane crash 120 reports were claiming they had picked up the messages. Of those 120, 57 were determined to be credible while the others were determined to be fake.
One of the reports allegedly said the message said the quote the plane was “part on land, water part.” It also said that her navigator Noonan was seriously injured and needed medical help. However, the next couple of days after the crash the navy found no plane on the island. They have even found tools and bits of Plexiglas that were found on that beach.
There are many more theories involving Amelia Earheart and Fred Noonan’s death, but no matter what happened that day Amelia Earheart has made history. She has won the awards of Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government, and the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society from President Herbert Hoover. No one has yet to find out what happened and what caused their death but there are still people to this day trying to figure it out, but no matter what Amelia Earheart will forever go down in history.
